| Abstract |
The year 1973 marked the 28th year of continuous research on wheat and other small grains in Mexico by CIMMYT and its predecessors. It also marked the ninth year of CIMMYT's activities as an international center, based in Mexico, but distributing new seed and technology to wheat-growing countries throughout the world, with emphasis on developing countries. From 1945 to 1973, Mexico's average wheat yields rose from 700 kg/ha to 4200 kg/ha. This is a remarkable achievement whiCh Mexico and CIMMYT can cite to other countries. Several significant periods can now be identified during this work in Mexico: 1945-56: Mexico overcame its wheat deficit and achieved self-sufficiency. 1956-62: Mexican dwarf wheats were developed by crossing local wheats with a short Japanese wheat, Norin10. Mexico released the first "one-gene dwarfs," Pitic-62 and Penjamo-62 in 1962, for its own commercial use. The two-gene and three-gene dwarfs were also released by Mexico during the 1960's. 1966: CIMMYT was created as an international center (the name comes from the acronym for Centro Internacional de Mejoramiento de Maiz y Trigo). 1966-72: Mexican wheats moved to India and Pakistan where they doubled the local wheat crop, from 15 million tons in 1966 to over 30 million tons in 1973. These wheats also moved to the Middle East, North and East Africa, and South America, where the original one-gene dwarfs were not so well adapted, but breeding and selection of varieties suitable for those regions is now well advanced. This volume reports the progress of the wheat program in 1973. Significant developments included: Two new bread wheat varieties, Jupateco 73 and Torim 73, bred by CIMMYT and the Mexican agency INIA, were released by Mexico, showing yield gains of 5 to 10% above previous dwarfs. Multilines of bread wheats, which are intended to stabilize bread wheat yields against attacks of the three rusts, are now being tested in 31 countries. New durum varieties bred in Mexico were released in the Mediterranean region and gave substantial yield gains above local varieties. Triticale, a new cereal grain created from the wheat-rye cross, is undergoing tests on five continents and showing superiority to wheat under some climates, soils, and moisture conditions. Training by CIMMYT in Mexico included 47 young scientists from 19 countries who'spent at least one full crop season in the Mexico research and production programs. International nursery trials distributed by CIMMYT were grown in 71 countries. Outreach activities (help to national wheat programs) included consultation by CIMMYT staff with 40 governments, and the resident services of 12 CIMMYT staff members posted in the following countries: Algeria, Morocco; Lebanon, Tunisia, and Turkey. CIMMYT's wheat staff consisted of only 15 senior scientists at headquarters, but they were responsible for the above progress, in association with a network of more than 1000 scientists who collaborate voluntarily outside of Mexico. |
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